


The Special One

by Stargazer_32557038



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Do you ever have that one OC were you want them to suffer?, F/F, F/M, M/M, POV Original Female Character, Polyamory, Possessive Behavior, Sass, Slow Burn, The Author Regrets Everything, also people die but this is dbd what did you expect, so much sass, well guess what this is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-02-15 14:50:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18671878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stargazer_32557038/pseuds/Stargazer_32557038
Summary: Zoe wakes up into a world completely different from her own, a world of misery, pain, and helplessness. A world where death is not an escape.And the best part?She has attracted the interest of four killers who go by the name of 'The Legion'.





	1. Chapter One - Ormond

**Author's Note:**

> So, hello there. Please do not take this fic too seriously, it is purely made for my own personal entrainment and because I want my OC to suffer :) Also, as you can see, this isn't going to be a harem, no no no, I'm going to try and make them (Frank, Susie, Julie, Joey and the OC) into a poly relationship. Yup.
> 
> P.S. There are going to be other ships in here, such as Meg x Nea, but it's only going to be very minor.

Zoe groggily woke up, groaning as she shifted, head throbbing in pain. She slowly regained her consciousness, eyes blinking rapidly, adjusting to the intense light. As her vision gradually focused, with eyes now widened in shock, she glanced around at the unfamiliar place.

This wasn’t her home. Where the fuck was she?

She was surrounded by structures covered by snow. How was that even possible? In her hometown, summer was just around the corner and when she had fallen asleep that night, it was one of the warmest nights in a while.

She shivered and whipped her head around, starting to feel anxious about this whole ordeal.

“Must be from the cold,” she mumbled to herself and hugged herself, rubbing her hands up and down her biceps in an attempt to stay warm.

Then, as she took a step forward, wanting to explore this unknown place she found herself stranded into, her foot bumped into something. She glanced down, frowning as she was met with a wooden baseball bat that laid in front of her feet.

With a shrug, she bent down and picked it up, holding it tightly in her hands.

_Better be safe than sorry, but whoever’s behind this has a lot of explaining to do._

She slowly walked through this odd place, carefully stepping over the snow without making any noises, alert of her surroundings, yet she hadn’t come across any other human.

Suddenly, she flinched as a crow decided to alert its presence next to her quite loudly.

“Oh my god, you scared the fuck outta me,” she whispered frustratingly to the crow, which only stared at her blankly in return without moving.

Zoe shook her head and continued walking. After a few moments, she froze into her steps as she came across a...what the fuck was this?

There was an odd looking metallic construction, a pillar that slightly bent forward at a certain point and there was a… _hook_ hanging off of it?

“This is a really creepy nightmare.”

She walked closer to inspect it and flinched back, eyes widening in horror as she noticed that there was dried _blood_ on it. She coughed, turned into a random direction and walked away as fast as she could.

She didn’t know what its purpose was, but she did _not_ want to be close to that thing.

Not even looking once behind her, she kept walking through the snowed area, hands coming around her biceps as a weak attempt to keep herself warm.

Then, she stumbled upon a piece of odd-looking machinery and cautiously approached it. She crouched in front of it and noted that there were cut wires on each side of it. She tilted her head and raised her bat, giving this machinery a poke with it but nothing changed.

She sighed and stood up, “Okay, just what the fuck is—“

Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream echoed through the air, penetrating her ears as she stumbled back a few steps from the shock and tripped, falling flat on her ass.

Her lower lip trembled, her stomach tightening in knots as she stared off into the distance where she had heard the scream.

_The question is…do I go and investigate or do I find a way out of this fucking place?_

“Fuck.” She groaned and slowly stood on her feet.

She let out a deep, shaky breath and started making her way towards that very same direction.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” She grumbled under her breath and tightened her hold onto the bat.

After a few moments, she came across a huge, abandoned-looking building but the sounds of pained whimpering, followed by chuckling snapped her focus elsewhere. Her eyes widened in horror as she stared at the scene a couple of meters away from her.

A dark-skinned girl was on the ground, heavily injured and trying to crawl away from the person that stood above her. Zoe’s eyes took in the other person’s physique; broad shoulders— probably a man, average height and was wearing regular clothes, nothing standing out much, yet what made her freeze on her steps was the hunting knife that he was holding in his right hand.

She glanced right and left, yet no one else was around. Could she just stand there and watch this girl get killed?

Zoe glanced briefly down at the baseball bat in her hands and took a deep breath.

_I’m so going to fucking regret this._

She made her way cautiously towards them, making sure to keep her steps light as to catch the attacker by surprise. She was only a few meters away when the dark-skinned girl noticed her and glued her widened, fear-stricken eyes on her, letting out another whimper.

As the man was about to turn, without further thinking, she raised her bat and swung as hard as she could towards him, smashing him square against the head. The man immediately dropped down, lifelessly laying on the ground.

“Okay, I don’t know what the fuck is going on or who the fuck are you, but I think I just killed this man. Oh, fuck, I just killed someone. _Shit_ ,” Zoe cursed and turned away from the man and crouched next to the girl, “are you— can you stand up? We need to, um, we need to get the fuck out of here, whatever ‘here’ is anyways.”

She tried to smile reassuringly at the girl, but it came out more like a grimace than a smile.

The girl shook her head in jerky motions, “I-I can’t, not on my own. You’ll— you’ll need to help me, please.”

Zoe nodded and snaked her right hand over the girl’s waist, hoisting her up on her feet, whilst with the left she held her bat.

“O-Okay, uh, do you know where the exit is? Please tell me you know what the f-fuck’s going on because I’m fucking terrified and I just wanna go _home_.”

The dark skinned girl nodded and gestured towards the building, “I’ll explain everything to you, but we first need to get inside, out of…here.”

They slowly walked together towards the house, although the dark-skinned girl kept glancing behind her shoulder at her previous attacker who was still lying on the ground out cold.

As they went inside, they stopped close to the fireplace and next to another identical machinery that she had encountered earlier.

“Okay, uh, first let me patch this up and then I’ll tell you everything you need to know, okay?” the dark-skinned girl weakly smiled at Zoe as she placed down a red box in front of her.

“Is that a med kit? Where did you pull that from?” Zoe questioned, peering down curiously at the box.

“I…was holding it with me the entire time…” the dark-skinned girl stated as she started wrapping her stomach with bandages.

Zoe raised her eyebrows, gaping at the girl, “Seriously? I…I didn’t even notice it.”

The dark skinned girl finished patching herself up and put the rest of the supplies into the box. Then, she took a deep breath and raised her hand towards her. “First of all, my name is Claudette.”

She raised her own and grabbed _Claudette’s_ hand firmly.

“Zoe.”

Claudette nodded and then moved towards the weird machinery and started tinkering with it.

“Come, we can’t waste any more time, we will be fixing this generator and I’ll be explaining at the same time. I’m sure that the others must have done at least one or two other generators too.” Claudette said, not lifting her head from the generator.

“Generator…? Why do we even need to fix these things? Can’t we just get the hell out of here? And there are others here too?” She rambled on, her fingers anxiously twitching.

“I’ll answer all of your questions in a bit, but first, do you see what I’m doing? How I’m connecting the wires together?”

Zoe nodded and Claudette gestured towards the other empty side.

“You should go and do the same thing, the faster we get this done, the better. Believe me, it’ll all make sense in a while.”

“Uh, okay…”

Claudette cleared her throat and started, “Okay, this place you’re— _we’re_ in is…not our usual world. We don’t really know how either of us came here, but what we do know is that there is no escape, no matter what you try. And believe me, we have tried everything. Aside from regular people like you and me, there are other beings, usually not…human. These other ‘beings’, we call them the ‘killers’.” Claudette paused shortly, glancing over her back and then resumed.

“One of the killers is just like the one you saw outside previously. The killers’ whole purpose is to…sacrifice us on one of those hooks that you must have seen outside. But they do not decide that on their own, there is actually a stronger being in this…realm, The Entity, we call it, which is behind all this. It is like a sick and twisted game, you could say. Every time, four different people among us are chosen and are placed in a different location, each location is a killer’s realm and we need to fix five different generators like this one to power up the exit gates and escape.”

Just as Claudette finished talking, the generator made a loud sound and lighted up, an indication that it was probably fixed.

“And you mean to tell me that there is no end to this? This whole ordeal just…repeats itself?” she gestured around.

Claudette mutedly nodded and started walking away, gesturing her to follow.

“Wow, um, I don’t wanna come off as rude or anything but that’s what I call being royally fucked. _Holy fucking shit_.” Zoe whispered in disbelief.

They quietly made their way outside of the building with Claudette leading the way in front of her.

“You have realized that you’re one of us too now, right?”

Zoe abruptly stopped, gaping at Claudette, “What? No, no, I…there’s no possible way, I’m just…”

“Stuck here with us in this never-ending nightmare. Sorry. If it makes you feel any better, you aren’t the first one to join and certainly won’t be the last. Although, that’s…odd,” Claudette gestured towards the baseball bat in Zoe’s hands.

“No one amongst the survivors ever had a weapon with them when they came here…you are literally the first one to ever have. We didn’t think this was possible.” She explained and resumed walking.

Zoe raised her eyebrows, mouth agape, “You’re— you’re joking. You’re actually pulling my—“ she closed her mouth shut as she saw Claudette shake her head, a grim expression on her face.

“And how the fuck does anyone expect you to go against these…’killers’?” she huffed out, gesturing around with her arms frustratingly.

“We learned to survive, we adapted against each killer, learned their weaknesses and tricks. That was the only way.”

She let out a shaky breath, tightening her hold on her baseball bat.

“ _Jesus Christ_.”

“Yeah, it’s…it’s really messed up—“ Claudette paused and craned her neck, listening.

“What is it?” Zoe whispered, looking around cautiously.

“I can hear the sound of a generator being done, come on, we need to go and help. Let’s hope that your swing was good enough to keep the Legion out cold for a while, although I don’t how this really works…you’re the first one to land a heavy hit like that on a killer.”

“Yeah, um, on a side note— I _so_ don’t regret that I blew the guy’s brains out. _God_ , I hope he’s dead.” She commented.

“While that would be in our favor, I don’t think they can just die that easily…at least not forever. If we _can_ even kill them, it will probably be the same as us— they’ll come back like nothing happened.”

“This is definitely, _definitely_ not fucking good. Not good at all.”

“Yeah, it— Oh, thank goodness, Dwight! It’s so good to see a familiar face.” Claudette sighed and crouched next to him, starting to work on the generator as well.

“F-Familiar face? What do you mean? Didn’t you, uh, didn’t you come across Jake? I was with him before—“ Dwight turned towards her, eyes widening as he took her in.

She gave a small, nervous wave and got onto the other side of the generator, placed her bat down and started working on it as well.

“I’m Zoe, the new girl in the block, nice— nice to…meet you? Well, considering the situation, this isn’t actually _nice_ , but, you know, always good to meet new faces, so, um. Yeah. Bad to meet you? Oh _god_ , that sounds even worse, I’m sorry, I’ll just shut up.” she bit her lower lip in order to force herself from rambling on any further.

She always did talk a lot when she was nervous and, well, _terrified_ , considering the situation she found herself into.

A weak chuckle snapped her out of her thoughts and lifted her head, eyes widening as she saw a small smile forming on Dwight’s lips.

“She seems, uh, nice.”

Claudette nodded, “She is, very much so. You should have seen her earlier, because I was this close to getting caught by the Legion, but she jumped out of nowhere and hit him so hard in the head with that bat, I would have believed that she killed him, if I didn’t know better.”

“W-What? With a bat? She— she was a _weapon_? That she can _use_?” Dwight turned his head towards her, staring in disbelief.

“You really weren’t kidding when you said you didn’t have any weapons…” Zoe addressed Claudette while pursing her lips.

“Hey, uh, Dwight? Do you know how many generators are left? I remember Claudette telling me that we have to fix five of them, so…”

Dwight nodded, “This is actually the last one and then we can escape.”

She let out a deep sigh, “Oh, thank fucking god, I just want this to be over and done with.”

“Just a little bit more and…there! There are two exit gates which are powered up now and we can open them to escape!” Claudette said and grabbed her by the hand, standing up, “Let’s go!”

Zoe reached for her baseball bat and then let Claudette drag her away towards one of the gates, with Dwight following closely behind them. After a while, they finally reached a large and tall gate with a lever to the side. Dwight hastily went towards it and pulled the lever down, glancing left and right anxiously.

Suddenly, she felt something in the atmosphere shift, something making her stomach twist in knots. A shiver wracked down her spine and she clenched her jaw, slowly turning to look over her shoulder.

After a while of studying her surroundings, she paused as her eyes fell upon a figure standing still in the far back, beside a quite large, snowed-covered rock.

She shakily exhaled as her eyes zeroed into the grinning, bloodied mask that was staring right back at her. Then, the figure slowly tipped its head to the side, like it was observing a curious specimen.

A hand on her forearm made her flinch and whip her head back. The exit gate was already opened and Claudette was looking at her with an anxious expression.

“Come on, it’s time to go.”

Zoe nodded and as she started walking towards the exit, turned her head to look over her shoulder one last time.

There was nothing there.


	2. Chapter Two - The Campfire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chap, pretty small this time. Also, I do not have a beta reader, so if you see any errors or typos, you can put the blame on me.

Zoe blinked and in an instant she found herself standing in front of a campfire with Claudette still holding onto her hand and her baseball bat in the other.

“This was the best trial I have ever had in a while,” Claudette sighed, withdrew her hand and turned to smile at her, “thanks, Zoe.”

She shook her head, “I should be the one thanking you, because if you weren’t there to explain everything to me then I would have been probably brutally murdered by that freak.”

Then, Claudette turned to Dwight, “What happened to Jake?” she addressed him.

As Dwight was about to open his mouth, he was cut off by an unfamiliar voice.

“I opened the other gate and escaped.”

The guy she assumed was the one they called Jake was now standing next to them, arms folded over his chest, his eyes studying her.

“The newbie, right?” Jake asked.

She thickly swallowed, now aware that there were a lot of people surrounding them, “Yeah, the name’s Zoe.”

Jake nodded and briefly glanced down at the bat in her hands.

“Nice bat.”

And with that, he turned around and took off into the woods.

“Okay…that just happened.” She mumbled under her breath.

“So, this midget is the new survivor?”

Zoe frowned and whipped her head around, coming face to face with a girl that had a wide smirk on her face.

“Nea, please don’t start,” Claudette protested, placing herself between her and _Nea_.

“No, Claudette, let her finish what she has to say, I _really_ want to hear it.” Zoe bit out and gripped the bat in her right hand tighter.

“There’s not much I want to say, really, just to remind her that she’s nothing special. Just because she’s the first one to appear with a sort of weapon, doesn’t mean that we should let that get over her head,” Nea slightly paused to raise her chin defiantly, “and isn’t it suspicious? Why does _she_ have a weapon while none of us ever had? Why _her_? Is she even a real survivor? She could be one of the killers.”

“Oh, for the love of god, we all know you’re jealous of her because she’s the one that’s ‘different’ from us. Just let her be, Nea, or you won’t be getting any at all for a _long_ time.”

A redheaded girl stepped up, a playful grin stretching on her lips as Nea’s face fell.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, yes, yes I would and I _will_ , if you continue to harass her,” Meg finished and placed her hands on her hips.

Nea clicked her tongue and averted her eyes, kicking the dirt with her foot in frustration.

“What are you, five?” Meg added, staring at Nea with a soft expression.

Nea turned her head sharply, glaring at Meg and raised her hand, index finger pointing at her. She was about to open her mouth, yet Meg’s raised eyebrow made her hesitate and dropped her hand back down again. Then, Nea turned towards her, but looking anywhere _but_ her.

“Sorry…” she grumbled.

Zoe blinked, a wicked grin forming slowly on her face, “I’m sorry, what was that? I don’t think I heard you, you’ll need to be a little bit louder.”

Nea visibly clenched her jaw and lifted her head, glaring at her, “I said I’m fucking sorry! There, happy now?”

“Why, you’re so kind! I think me and you will get along so well, _Nea_.” Zoe faked the enthusiasm, dramatically placing a hand over her chest.

With that, Nea walked away and sat under a tree as far away from them as possible.

Meg sighed, “Well, seems like I have to go and comfort her now. Anyways, it was good to meet you, Zoe. Welcome abroad.”

“The pleasure’s all mine.”

Meg chuckled as she walked away towards Nea. Then, Zoe turned towards Claudette who had been watching the whole exchange with an amused expression.

“Hey, uh, Claudette, would you mind if I bothered you for a little bit more? I just have a few more questions about…you know,” she gestured around with her hands.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you need, let’s just go and sit around the campfire with the others, about time you meet the rest of us,” Claudette replied as she started walking towards the campfire.

Zoe followed closely behind and as they arrived at the campfire, sat beside Claudette.

“Before you start with your questions, let me introduce you to everyone that’s here— starting from my left we have Kate, Quentin, David, Feng and those two over there are Ace and Bill.” Everyone gave her a small wave or a nod of acknowledgment as Claudette introduced them.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you all, I’m Zoe, but I think you may already know that…” she trailed off as she side-glanced towards where Nea and Meg were sitting together.

“But we do seem to be missing four others…although it’s not as usual for two trials to be happening at the same time, it’s not unheard of either. You’ll meet them when they are finished. Anyways, now that’s all cleared— your questions?”

“Oh, yeah, erm,” she placed the baseball bat in front of her and brought her knees in, propping her chin onto them, “I think that I’ll take me a little while to comprehend the fact that even if we die, we just come back, but…what happens when we’re here? We just sit around and wait? What if the killers decide to come here, too?”

Claudette took a deep breath, eyes glued on the fire in front of her, “It’s exactly how you said it; ‘we just sit around and wait’. Unfortunately, there’s nothing else we can do. We find different things to do— for example, playing cards, but that’s it. There’s no escape from here, we have all confirmed it.”

“And we are safe here…?”

“A lot of us have roamed these woods, have scavenged everything, but we all reach a point where there is this…invisible barrier separating us from what’s on the other side. Some of us have caught some silhouettes out there, silhouettes of the killers watching us, but none of them ever managed to cross that invisible wall, so we believe it works both ways.”

She glanced towards the boy named Quentin, who had just spoken and was staring into the fire with a tired expression. She couldn’t help but notice the dark circles under his eyes and bit down on her lower lip, forcing back the instinctive question of _are you okay?_ because she knew that none of them were ever going to be _okay_ while being here.

“Oh, I see…thanks.”

“What else do you wanna know?” Claudette asked.

“I’m good for now, thanks. I’ll ask you if anything comes up,” she replied and received a nod from Claudette.

After that, she remained silent and decided to observe the rest of the… _survivors_ and rethink of everything that has happened up until now.

For some unknown reason, she was chosen by this otherworldly being called the _Entity_ and was placed in this never-ending nightmare. There was no escape and she was somehow different from the rest because she had a baseball bat?

None of this made sense, no matter how much she thought about it. It all seemed like a terrifying nightmare that she desperately wanted to wake up from and _god_ , did she hope that this was _just_ a nightmare and not reality.

“Well, _hello_ there, young lady.”

She snapped out of day-dreaming and lifted her head towards the man that was standing in front of her, smiling widely.

What was his name again?

“Claudette did introduce me earlier, but just for a heads up, my name is Ace, it’s _very_ nice to meet you, Miss Zoe.”

Ah, yes, Ace.

He seemed like a _gentleman_.

“Nice to meet you, Ace— and please, Zoe is just fine.” She smiled tightly, offering him her hand and he firmly grabbed it, but instead of a handshake, he slightly bent down and placed a light kiss over her knuckles.

“The pleasure is all mine. It is truly a gift to be blessed with your presence. Such a strong woman, those fearless brown eyes, those short, silky, brown hair, and those big _curves_ —”

She could feel her lips twitch and she, quite forcibly, withdrew her hand and tucked it into her grey track pants’ pocket.

“Ace, leave the poor girl alone, I think she’s had enough harassing today as it is.” The girl named Kate spoke up.

Zoe lifted her head to meet the girl’s eyes, who winked at her. She could feel blood rushing to her face, so she grabbed her baseball bat and abruptly stood up.

“Is it, um, is it okay if I wander off for a little bit? I need to be alone for a moment, to…take this all in,” she addressed Claudette, not knowing who else to refer to at the moment.

“Yeah, of course, take all the time you need, Zoe.”

“Thanks.”

She chose a random route and started walking inside the woods, walking past trees and bushes that looked identical. After a while, she stopped and dropped down, scooted back and placed her back against a tree, her baseball bat clutched tightly onto her lap. She closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath.

She wanted to go home so bad. Back to her friends and her shitty job. Back to where it was all normal and safe.

She doesn’t know how long she stayed there, but at some point, a sudden sound snapped her back into reality and she stood up in a defensive pose, alert of her surroundings. She looked all around her for a while and after not seeing anyone, she relaxed her stance and ran a hand over her face.

They did say that none of the killers could come over to their side, so she had to be safe, at least for now.

Zoe sighed and stared at the baseball bat in her hands.

“This couldn’t get any fucking worse.” She muttered to herself.

Then, she turned around and started walking back towards the campfire, never noticing the figure that was watching her from afar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really love Meg x Nea, so I couldn't resist. Anyways, hope you liked this one (if anybody is even reading this lmao)


	3. Chapter Three - Susie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just gotta say, I really love writing Susie. Susie is the best.

Zoe didn’t know how much time had passed since she had first shown up in this living hell. It could have been hours, days, weeks.

She couldn’t tell as the sun never rose above the trees. It was always night, the darkness surrounding them, but it was fitting for this place, she thought. The absolute darkness.

The first time that she had been to the campfire, after her first trial, Nea had snatched her baseball bat whilst she was resting. Everybody expected something to happen, but oddly enough, nothing did. Everyone could touch it and swing it around, simple as that.

Yet, on the second trial, at a moment when the Trapper had hoisted her up on his shoulder, Jake was close by and had dived for her baseball bat. As his fingers made contact with her bat, he had jerked them back immediately.

After the trial had finished, Jake had come up to her and informed her that he had been burned the instant that he touched it.

From that moment on, she had taken the role of ‘protector’ for the whole group. Whenever someone was in danger, she was the one that rushed to their aid and stunned the killer by swinging her bad as hard as she could.

Sometimes it didn’t work. Actually, most of the time, her attempts weren’t effective, as most killers had a huge physique and impossibly strong.

Most of the times, she would swing but killers like Michael Myers or the Trapper would be completely unharmed and that would result in her being placed on a hook, but it was inevitable.

She wasn’t really any good with the generators, so the least she could do was help the others. She had the means to do it and she wasn’t going to let it go to waste.

And as of now, she was in another trial yet again, but there was something off. When she had caught a glimpse of a familiar white, blooded mask, she knew that it was the Legion, yet it was another person this time. This time it was a female.

A while back Claudette had informed her about every single killer that existed and she was surprised when she learned that the Legion were four different people under the same nickname.

Yet, the oddest thing out of all was their noticeable human side. She had noticed that they were just mere teenagers, no more than twenty years old.

And in comparison to all the other killers that had no humanity left, it was harder than usual to see them as such. As ruthless killers.

She knew that they were, they made sure to remind her as she now watched her friends being hunted down, yet there was something different about them.

From the moment that this trial had started, the killer completely ignored her. There were moments where the killer would find her and another survivor working on a generator but she would always chase the other survivor and always leave her alone.

Zoe didn’t really know what to make of this. At first, she was glad, relieved that maybe she wasn’t interesting enough to the killer and maybe could be spared.

At first.

But after a while, she got madly pissed. All she wanted to do was save her friends and be useful to them, and she couldn’t even _do_ that.

And now, she was running through the snowed-in Ormond, with her baseball bat clenched tightly in her right hand, heading for Kate who was currently struggling for her life on a hook.

In the trial, she was joined by Kate, David, and Dwight, although David and Dwight didn’t have much luck, as they were sacrificed first out of the four.

Now, there was only her and Kate left and they were going to escape together, she would make _sure_ of that. Either way, there was only one generator left to be fixed so it wouldn’t be that hard.

She panted heavily as she finally reached Kate and quickly placed her bat down and raised herself on her tiptoes, grabbing Kate under her armpits and lifting her up and off the hook.

“You run back to the generator we were previously working on, I will distract the killer so you can patch yourself up and finish it, okay?” she finished and lightly pushed Kate away, “okay, glad we agree, now _go_.”

Kate gave her one last anxious look and turned around, starting to limp away. Then, Zoe let out a shaky breath and turned towards the direction where the killer was coming from, her heartbeat pounding loud against her ribcage.

She sprinted out of the bushes and there was the killer, her knife clutched high above her head.

Zoe immediately turned to the left and sprinted away, as far away as possible from the generator that Kate was currently working on.

For a moment, she had her doubts, that the female killer would ignore her yet again and seek Kate, but thankfully, that didn’t happen as her heartbeat was pounding even louder.

She could hear fast, light steps right behind her and before she knew it, pain exploded all over her back, making her let out a pained scream. She kept running, vaulting over objects and pallets, but the killer was always right behind her.

Then, as she was about to vault over a window, a hand snatched her leg and dragged her back which caused her to drop her baseball bat on the floor, leaving her defenseless. The killer let out a chuckle as she hoisted Zoe up on her shoulder.

“Oh, so _now_ you finally decide to pay attention to me. I was feeling like of neglected, you know. What, am I not good enough for you? Or are you scared of me?” she taunted as she struggled against the killer’s hold.

Zoe narrowed her eyes as they passed a hook, the killer not even paying attention to it.

Then, she yelped as she was thrown down on the ground and tried to stand up, but realized that she was too heavily injured and didn’t have any strength left.

She was about to open her mouth, to say anything to keep the killer distracted, but a wide smirk stretched on her lips as the last generator was done and a loud horn was heard throughout the realm, indicating that the exit gates were powered.

“Seems like you were too late, _bitch_.”

Instantly, the killer snapped her head towards her, white mask stitched together staring down at her. Then, the pink-haired killer bent down and raised her hunting knife.

Zoe closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the blow that was about to come. Instead, something cold was placed against her lips, caressing them.

“Ah, ah, ah, such a _naughty_ girl. Wait till Frank hears about that snarky mouth.”

Her eyes snapped open wide, gawking at the killer above her. Her stomach twisted in knots as she realized that the cold thing she had felt against her lips was a knife.

And had the killer just talked at her? Was that even _possible_?

And who the fuck was _Frank_?

Before she had time to react, the pink-haired killer straightened up and went away, leaving her alone.

Soon, before she had much time to crawl away, she heard an ear piercing scream.

_Kate._

They were so close, the gates were powered up. If she had been smarter, if she had kept the killer occupied enough, they would have escaped.

Pained groans snapped out of her thoughts and lifted her head, eyes widening as Kate was dropped right in front of her.

“Z-Zoe, I’m…I’m sorry…I-I tried, I really did…” Kate sobbed, trying to crawl towards her.

“It's okay-“ she started, wanting to comfort Kate, but she never got to.

The killer stepped up and stabbed Kate on the back of her leg and dragged her back. Then, Kate was turned around and the killer embedded her knife deep into Kate's chest and dragged it down her torso, slicing her open.

Zoe let out a choked sob and turned her head away, but the image of Kate’s lifeless eyes and sliced up torso, with her guts spilling out was to be forever carved into her mind.

“Oh, fuck…goddammit. I-I think I’m gonna throw up, _shit_.” She mumbled to herself, gagging as the image played around in her head.

Suddenly, her breath hitched in her throat as her chin was gripped, surprisingly _gently_ and raised up. She glared up at the killer that was now staring down at her through that mask, head slightly tilted.

Zoe gritted her teeth, “What are you waiting for?! Just kill me already! ‘Cause I won’t be crawlin’ like an idiot forever and then I'll fucking show you!” she bit out.

She knew, she knew that these were all empty threats. She knew well that she couldn’t do anything in her condition, but it’s not like she was going to lie down and weep.

“Susie.”

She blinked up at the killer.

“What?”

The killer sighed, “My name’s Susie. Make sure you remember that.”

Zoe remained stunned as she was picked up on the killer’s- _Susie's_ shoulder and carried away. Before she had time to comprehend what had happened, she was dropped down, right next to the hatch.

She glanced at the hatch and then turned to stare up at Susie.

“Why.”

Susie played with her pink locks, twirling her hair around her index finger, but never got an answer besides a silent shrug.

What was she playing at? Was Susie taunting her? None of this made any sense— why would the killer allow her to escape?

The brutal images of Kate’s lifeless, violated body resurfaced into her head and without giving it much thought, she turned away and crawled in through the hatch.

* * *

When Zoe regained consciousness again, she was a little bit further away from the campfire, laying down under a tree. She slowly came to, blinking her eyes open as she placed her hands down and pushed herself into a sitting position.

As she glanced around, she noticed that only but a few people were huddled up around the campfire, most of them nowhere to be seen.

She stood up and as she took a step, her foot came into contact with something heavy. She looked down and with a sigh, sidestepped over her baseball bat and walked towards the campfire.

As she came close, she sat besides Claudette, who was gazing at the fire with half-lidded eyes, her chin propped up on her drawn-up knees.

“Hey,” She softly whispered, not wanting to startle Claudette.

“Hey, Zoe, how did it go? I noticed you were the last one to return.” Claudette asked as she side-glanced at her.

She opened her mouth, but didn’t- _couldn’t_ find the right words to describe the situation and pressed her lips into a tight line.

_Images of Kate being sliced open, butchered like some kind of lifeless, meaningless animal filled her head, her guts and intestines spilling out of her body-_

She inhaled sharply, shuddering, “It- it was good. I…I managed to escape through the hatch. I’m sneaky like that.”

She offered a playful grin, but it came out more like a grimace. She never could really fake her emotions, she was never any good at hiding them.

Claudette gave her a concerned look.

“Are you sure everything went well? You know that I’m always here for you, whatever it is.”

She smiled to herself and turned her head towards the fire.

“I know and thank you for that. I’m really glad that I have you as a friend here.”

Claudette huffed out a laugh, “Don’t mention it, Z.”

After that, they remained silent for a long while, both of them basking into the serenity of the night. Oddly enough, she felt safe, when she was sitting here, surrounded by her new friends. It was the only form of comfort she had- _they_ all had.

“Do you know where…Kate is?” she hesitantly muttered.

“Last time I saw her, she headed towards that direction,” Claudette turned around and pointed towards the woods, “but I’m not sure if you’ll still find her there.”

She nodded and stood up, “Thanks.”

Then, she started walking towards that same direction, stepping into the thick woods. She kept walking, going in deeper into the woods, eventually losing sight of the campfire, but Kate was nowhere in sight.

“Fuck.” She cursed under her breath as her small ponytail got caught into a trunk of a tree.

She reached up with her hands and carefully plucked her hair out of the leaves. As she took out the last one, she heard a snapping sound and whipped her head around, heartbeat racing.

“Kate?”

A shiver ran down her spine, the hair on the back of her neck rising, an unsettling feeling lurking deep inside her stomach.

She walked cautiously forward, wondering how much more she could walk until she reached the limits of their territory.

Then, from the corner of her eye, she caught a bright, orange color and as she turned her head, with a sigh, she noticed Kate standing a few meters away from her, facing forward.

Zoe jogged up to her and came to stand beside her, both looking forward.

“Hey, I have been searching for you for quite a while now. You, uh, you okay?”

“Do you see this?”

She blinked in surprise as Kate immediately responded with her own question, completely ignoring hers.

_Well, I shouldn’t really be surprised about that considering what happened…_

“Uh, what exactly?” she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Kate raised her right hand and placed her palm flat against something invisible, “This.”

Her eyes widened and she took a step closer to Kate, curiously inspecting it. Kate's hand was flat against something that seemed to be an invisible wall. Small waves were radiating from around the placement of her hand, making that part of the invisible wall now ‘visible’ to the naked eye.

“So, this is the barrier that’s separating us from them…” she mumbled under her breath, slowly raising her own hand.

“Anyways, let's go back, we have a long road until we reach the campfire,” Kate stated, turned around and started walking away.

Zoe placed her hand against the barrier, but instead of finding resistance, her hand slipped through to the other side. Her eyes widened, a gasp escaping her lips.

“You coming?”

She jerked her hand back and cradled it against her chest like it was burned.

“Yeah, yeah…I'm- let’s go.”

She turned around, jogged up to Kate and joined her side, both starting to walk towards the campfire.

The image of her hand slipping through the barrier never left her head.


	4. Chapter Four - Julie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My exams have started, so I won't upload for probably two weeks. The fact that I even managed to squeeze this chapter in is a miracle. (If anyone even cares, which I highly doubt, but oh well.)

Zoe groaned as she regained consciousness and realized where she was.

“What’s up with me and waking up in this goddamn place so many times?” she huffed and started searching for a generator, baseball bat in her hands as always.

After a few minutes of walking through the snow, freezing her ass off, she finally spotted a generator inside the ‘killer shack’ as Claudette had once explained that they called it. Immediately, she crouched down, grabbed two wires and started repairing it.

She must have been half-way through when she heard her heartbeat start to pound loud against her ribcage.

She softly cursed, grabbed her bat and frantically glanced around for any hiding spots. Then, she noticed stairs that led somewhere downstairs and, with a second of hesitation, walked down.

A chill ran down her spine as she gaped at the four hooks in front of her in horror. Her eyes wandered around, hand covering her mouth as she took in the terrifying sight in front of her. Everything was covered in blood.

“Oh shit, yup, I can feel the puke coming— _fuck_.” She gagged, but somehow managed to hold it down.

Puking would be the last thing she needs right now, but her heartbeat didn’t slow down. It kept pounding loud against her ears, feeling like it was going to burst out of her chest at any given moment.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whispered heatedly and quickly got into one of the lockers that were down there.

Her breath hitched into her throat as she heard the stairs creak, light footsteps descending. Then, slowly, a foot appeared and soon the rest of the killer came into view.

_Fucking great, it’s that same guy from the first time_ , she thought but as her eyes scanned over the killer, she realized that it wasn’t entirely true. Except if that killer had grown boobs.

Weren’t the Legion four different killers? This must be the third, then. Same clothes as the first one, but a female. Oh, joy.

_Good god, they are all just teenagers too._

She had to physically hold herself back from groaning, so she bit down on her lower lip. This killer was different from the other two, though. This moved cautiously, like a predator assessing its prey, ready to pounce.

Her fingers clenched her bat to the point of her knuckles turning white as the killer turned her head and looked straight at her.

Zoe thickly swallowed as the killer took slow, menacing steps towards the locker she currently occupied. The deafening silence was driving her mad and anxious, the only thing loud enough to be heard was hers and the killer’s light breathing.

Her body tensed up as the killer stopped just outside the locker. Zoe waited for her to open the locker’s doors and grab her, but she never did.

She never fucking did.

Instead, the killer leaned in and the only thing she could now see where the two dots of the mask’s eyes.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, little one.”

And just like that, the killer turned and walked up the stairs, disappearing completely, as her heartbeat also slowed down. She let out a breath she was holding and frowned.

“What the _fuck_ was that?” she bit out and shoved the locker doors open.

She walked up the stairs and resumed working on the generator.

What the fuck.

Seriously, _what the fuck_.

Why didn’t the killer put her on a hook? Why did she get ignored like always—

Her mind stuttered at the thought, feeling like she was drenched with a bucket of cold water. The generator exploded in her face and she jerked her hands back, letting out a pained sound as she studied her burned hands.

“Perfect, fucking _perfect_.” She grumbled to herself and resumed working on the generator, biting down on her lower lip hard as her hands stung, but didn’t stop.

She recalled her previous encounters with the other two killers of the Legion and realized that none had sacrificed her. They hadn’t even hurt her, not as much as touched a hair from her head. Why?

_Why._

None of it made any sense. All the other killers were more than happy to strike her down, so what was so different with the Legion? Was it some fucked up sense of sympathy? Pity?

She scoffed at the thought. It was impossible, killers didn’t have any emotions, they were nothing but some mindless beasts, hungry for blood.

But was that really it?

She didn’t know what it meant, but she knew how it made her feel.

She was angry.

Did they think she was some weakling? Was she not even good enough to get killed? Was that it? She had a baseball bat, _for fuck's sake._

She was so fucking angry, she wanted to bash something in with her—

A wide grin formed on her lips as she finally finished working on the generator. She picked up her bat and started jogging away, through the snowed realm.

Not something, but _someone_ to be exact.

Was it stupid? Very.

Was she going to regret this later? Probably.

Was she going to get yelled at for doing this? Most likely.

Would it make her feel better? _Hell yes._

She jogged through the snowed realm, turning her head left and right, searching for the killer. She knew that if she had managed to finish one generator all by herself, then the others must be finishing the last one any minute now, so she sped up her pace, because she knew their trick.

She knew that they always left her for last and would make sure that they would all escape together now, with no one left behind.

Suddenly, her heartbeat started pounding loudly against her chest and she grinned, heading towards the direction where the killer was. Zoe slowed down, panting heavily and peered over at the last generator that Claudette and Quentin were working on, noticing that the killer was heading towards them.

Claudette and Quentin quickly scrambled up and sprinted away in different directions, but before the killer started to chase one of them down, she stepped out and put herself between the killer, blocking her path.

“You know, that little stunt you pulled back there? Very rude. Very, _very_ rude. Bored with me so fast? And then I come out here to find you going after my friends. The audacity of some people,” she tutted and shook her head disapprovingly, “oh, but I didn’t even ask for your name— How _rude_ of me. So, what may your name be, miss?”

She smirked as she slightly glanced down and noticed that the killer tightened her grip on her hunting knife.

“I’m Zoe, by the way.”

“Julie.”

She blinked, mouth agape as she gawked at the killer— _Julie_. She had been only joking when she asked for her name, she didn’t think that she would actually give it to her. The same had happened with the other female killer too, the one with pink hair and a skirt—

_Susie._

Claudette never mentioned to her that the killers interacted with the survivors. Had she forgotten to inform her about it? No, there was no way. She trusted that Claudette wouldn’t withhold any information from her, so why?

Why, why, _why_?

One damned question, but no answer.

“So, pray tell, _Julie_ , what made you leave me behind?” she questioned casually as she twirled her bat in her hand, but inside she was hyperventilating.

She knew that what she was doing was madness, crazy, she knew that she was asking for it, but she had to know, she needed to know the reason.

Zoe tensed as Julie started walking to the side, slowly circling around her.

“I wanted to have you alone, to witness for myself what was so _great_ about you, for the girl that managed to capture both Frank’s and Susie’s interest,” she slightly paused and cocked her head to the side, “but I’m not impressed. You’re just a loud brat. Maybe that’s why you captured their interest, your personality suits theirs.”

She let out a shaky breath and started taking small steps backwards, “Firstly, _rude_ , that was _so_ rude. You’re just a ball of sunshine, aren’t you? Secondly, the short dude’s name is Frank, huh? Good to know. And thirdly,” she narrowed her eyes and raised her bat, pointing straight at Julie, “never compare me with the likes of you, _any_ of you. We clear?”

Julie slightly paused, as in deep thought and then started to slowly advance on her.

“You’ve got guts, I’ll give you that. Or it might be stupidity, but one thing’s sure, I won’t be as merciful as the other two,” Julie stated and raised her knife.

“Oh, come on, y-you’re— you’re no fun,” she inwardly cursed as she slipped up and fastened her grip on her baseball bat, ready to strike.

But, before Julie had time to attack, a loud sound echoed through the whole snowed realm, indicating that all five generators were fixed, exit gates ready to be opened.

“While our talk was enlightening, I’m afraid my purpose here has been served, so, if you’ll excuse me—“ she turned around and sprinted away, heading towards the abandoned lodge.

And as she had predicted right, Julie was on her tail, gaining fast on her. As she vaulted over a window, she let out a pained cry as her back was slashed. Without thinking, she quickly whipped around and threw her bat at Julie and resumed running towards the closest exit gate, hoping to reach it before she was caught.

Her eyes spotted the exit gate up ahead, opened and she sped up her pace, as much as she could. After an agonizing minute, she managed to reach it. As she was about to cross over to the other side, she paused and turned around.

Julie was standing tall just outside of the exit gate, staring right at her, but from her tense posture, she knew that underneath the mask Julie was glaring daggers at her.

A smirk formed on her lips, “It was truly such a pleasure to meet you, Julie. Oh, and before I forget, please give my regards to our beloved Frank and Susie.”

Then, before she walked into safety, she raised both hands and gave Julie the middle finger.

* * *

Zoe slowly blinked, gradually regaining her consciousness. She sat up in a sitting position and rubbed her eyes, looking around. A grin slowly stretched on her lips. She was back at the campfire with all the others. A sense of pride overtook her as she remembered the events that had taken place in the trial not too long ago. The best coping mechanism is sarcasm and nobody can tell her otherwise.

“Zoe, you’re back! Thank god, you had me so worried, you reckless idiot!”

Before she had time to turn her head, two arms were wrapped around her and she was squeezed tight against a chest.

She huffed, “Oh, come on, you’re overreacting, Claudette.”

Zoe brought her arms up and wrapped them around Claudette’s middle, gently patting her back. Then, Claudette placed her hands on Zoe’s shoulders and pushed her back just enough to look at her.

“Overreacting? _Overreacting?!_ You literally served yourself onto a silver plate to the killer for us! Don’t try to excuse yourself, I saw what happened and you’re in big trouble.” Claudette snapped, hold tightening.

Zoe sighed and wrapped her fingers around Claudette’s wrists, gently prying her hands off of her.

“And what should I have done? Sit back and watch you die? Isn’t that the reason why I even have this with me?” she gestured at the baseball bat next to her, “to protect you all? I won’t apologize for helping you— and I escaped just fine! No harm done. Yay. Go me.”

Claudette narrowed her eyes, lips pressed into a tight line. She grabbed Zoe’s elbow and pulled her up, “We need to talk,” she whispered and briefly glanced back at the others, “preferably alone.”

Zoe gestured towards the woods, “Lead the way.”

She followed Claudette into the thick woods, walking for what seemed like ages until Claudette deemed they were far enough and stopped. Claudette whipped around, stepped closer and lifted her hand, poking her in the chest with her index finger.

“Do you have _any_ idea of what you just did?”

“Uh, yeah, I saved you, I thought it was obvious— which, you’re welcome, by the way.” She smiled tightly and patted Claudette on her shoulder.

“No, you just— you don’t get it, do you?” Claudette shook her head, a grim expression on her face.

Zoe forced out a chuckle, “Get what? What are you talking about, Claudette? I saved you, everything’s fine and we continue on with our ‘normal’ life.”

“No killer has ever shown that they have their own will, no killer has even attempted to communicate with one of us. Every killer, up until now, has been doing one thing, over and over again. Hunt us down and sacrifice us on those meat hooks. No one, up until you showed up.” Claudette pointed at Zoe yet again.

“Haven’t you noticed? How each member of the Legion that you have encountered had acted differently? The first two times you came across them, they let you go. That has _never_ happened before, to any of us. The third time, _this_ time, the killer had a _whole_ conversation with you. Doesn’t this even unsettle you?”

She opened her mouth, but clamped it shut again, not finding any words. She cleared her throat, fingers twitching.

“I mean, what— what would I even be unsettled about? I get that this is odd, but what _else_ can they do? It can’t possibly get worse than this,” a wobbly grin formed on her lips, “right?”

Claudette remained silent, staring at her with an anxious expression, her jaw clenched.

“I don’t know, Zoe. I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Julie is a bad bitch, she doesn't take any shit from nobody.


	5. Chapter Five - Joey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, people, how are you doing? I'm still alive, as you can see and my exams have finally ended. So, I'm definitely going to start updating, but unfortunately, I won't have as much free time as I would like. School stuff, in general.
> 
> Anyways, enough about my life and onto the story. I hope you enjoy this one. (If anyone even still remembers this lmao)

Zoe tapped her foot down anxiously whilst biting her lower lip, eyes darting towards the woods every now and then. Ever since she had discovered that she could pass to the other side, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Her legs were twitching, itching to head straight to the woods and cross over to the other side, to see for herself what lies there. Although, she knows very well how dangerous that would be and knows that if anyone else were to find out about it, they would freak out— _especially_ Claudette. Yet, she knew that it was only but a matter of time before her patience would run thin.

“H-Hey Zoe, are you alright?”

She snapped her head to her right, holding back a sigh as she saw Dwight peering at her with mild curiosity and concern.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good, just distracted is all.” She nodded to herself and offered Dwight a small smile.

Dwight gave a jerky nod, “Okay…if you say so.”

She really liked Dwight, although he could sometimes be a nervous wreck and could hardly form sentences, she liked his humble personality. But now she had to find an excuse and make him leave her alone for what she needed to do, even though she didn’t really want to be rude towards him.

“Hey, actually, um, I’m kinda, you know…not feeling so good so I’ll head over into the woods for a little while, ‘kay? I don’t think you want to witness…” she gestured with her hands around herself, “any unfortunate sight…?”

“Oh! Uh, yeah, you go on ahead, don’t let me keep you any longer. I-I hope you feel better and if you think that you’re getting worse, head straight for Claudette— although I’m sure you already knew that.” Dwight weakly chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Her eyes softened, “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

And with that, she headed off towards the woods. She kept walking and walking at a relatively fast pace until she finally reached the invisible barrier. She slowed down and stepped closer, slowly lifting her hand.

If she concentrated hard enough, she could actually… _feel_ its presence surrounding her. She glanced left and right and when she was sure that she wasn’t followed, took a deep breath and slowly pushed forward. Her arm gradually slipped through the other side and soon enough she had wholly breached the barrier.

She swallowed thickly as she took one last, quick glance over her shoulder and started walking cautiously forward, into unknown territory. After a while, the trees lessened and as she walked completely out of the woods, her mouth dropped open.

“These assholes have houses?! Un-fucking-believable!” she spat and cursed under her breath, slapping her hands over her mouth.

She ducked behind the closest house’s wall and hid behind it, heart pounding loud against her ribcage. Suddenly, she could hear heavy breathing and very carefully, peeked over the corner. Her eyes widened in horror as she gazed at the tall, white-masked figure that was standing a few meters away from her.

_Holy fucking shit that’s Michael Myers!_

Then, her breath hitched in her throat as Myers slowly turned his head towards the house she was hiding behind. Quickly, she ducked behind the wall and covered her mouth with her two hands, trying to desperately control her labored breathing.

And the one time that she needed her baseball bat outside of the trials, she didn’t have with her. Yet again, even if she did, she didn’t know how far she could have reached before getting caught. This was unknown, enemy territory she was trespassing in and would definitely get caught if she tried to make a run for it.

But what were her other options? Be a sitting duck and wait for Myers to catch her, and, inevitably, kill her?

She slowly stood up on her wobbly legs and took a few quiet steps away from the wall. She slightly hunched over, ready to bolt when an unfamiliar voice made her pause.

“Hey, big guy, you’re needed back, the doctor wants you for somethin’.”

Zoe remained impossibly still, craning her neck to eavesdrop. After a while, she could hear light steps fading away and after she was entirely sure that they were gone, she let out the breath she was holding and placed a hand over her chest.

“Why the fuck did I think that this shit was a good idea?” She grumbled under her breath.

“Because you have a death wish? Probably.”

“Wha—“

She whirled around, arms lifted in front of her, gaping at a killer that she had never encountered before. She kept silent and studied the man before her. From what she could see, he was dark-skinned, slightly taller than average height and was dressed in all-black attire, face covered by a mask. Thankfully, he wasn’t holding any kind of weapon nor was anything visible, but she couldn’t be too sure.

“Who are you.” She demanded, jaw clenched.

Her heart was pounding against her chest like crazy, her palms were sweating, but she couldn’t afford to show any fear or weakness, otherwise she would get eaten whole.

“The name’s Joey.” The killer— _Joey_ said with a shrug.

“Well, it’s certainly a pleasure to meet you, Joey, my name is none-of-your-fucking-business,” she replied, grinning widely.

Joey sighed and shook his head, “The others did warn me about your pleasant personality but I didn’t really believe them at first— guess I was wrong, ‘cause you’re clearly asking for it.”

“Others? Wait… _oh_ , you must be the fourth member of the Legion, then! Why, yes, it may have taken a while, but we finally meet, at last. I hope you didn’t feel too neglected or jealous, I would _never_ want that.” She responded sarcastically, glancing from the corner of her eye towards the woods to her left where her salvation was.

“Jealous? I wouldn’t say, but perhaps intrigued, curious. You even got Julie to have a weird, obsessive fixation with you.”

“Julie? Ah, the angry lady! Yeah, she was a ray of sunshine,” she nervously chuckled and sneaked a glance to her left, “but as much as I’m enjoying our little conversation, I’m afraid that I’ll have to be going now. Duty calls, you know how it is.”

She whirled to the left and made a run for it, sprinting as fast as her legs allowed her to. She went into the woods, panting heavily as she heard light footsteps right behind her. Suddenly, her arm was caught in a strong grip and was pulled backwards, and would have tumbled down if it wasn’t for the strong pair of arms holding her up.

“I’m sorry but I can’t let you go just yet. What we’re gonna do is sit down and have a conversation like the civilized people we are, yeah?” Joey stared down at her, eyes barely visible from the holes of the mask, “I know this is kind of selfish of me; keeping you to myself, but trust me, it’s for your own good. Anyways, it won’t be too long before you come here again.”

She thickly swallowed and tried to lean away, but Joey’s grip on her arm remained strong, unyielding.

A conversation like civilized people. Okay, yeah. She could do that.

She cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes, “First of all, I highly doubt that _monsters_ like you are civilized at all— full offense, by the way. Second of all, what the fuck do you mean that I’m gonna come here again? I’ll admit it, it was a mistake coming here all alone but even _I’m_ not that stupid to do the same mistake twice.”

Joey considered her for a few minutes, completely silent. He was so still that it creeped her out a little bit.

Suddenly, he let out a low whistle, “Susie and Julie weren’t kidding, you _do_ have a potty mouth. It’s a good thing you haven’t spoken with Frank yet. Or not. I’m not sure.”

She struggled again, knowing that it was mostly futile, but that didn’t mean that she was just going to stand there and be a good, obedient girl.

“Oh, I’m _shaking_ in fear,” she mockingly whimpered, “what’s he gonna do? Kill me in a trial? Like that’s anything new. But you aren’t the only ones with a weapon you know, so I wouldn’t be so confident.”

A wide smirk stretched on her lips as she felt Joey’s grip on her arm tighten from what she guessed was anger.

“Yet you say, but I don’t see said ‘weapon’ anywhere.” He stated and briefly glanced around.

She inwardly cursed, mind stuttering as she tried to find a convincible excuse.

“I-I, uh, I just thought that you’d be no match for me if I were to bring my baseball bat with me— and, you know, I would easily get noticed with it—“

“You forgot it, didn’t you?”

She snapped her mouth shut and poked him on the chest.

“Shut up,” she grumbled, heat pooling in her face, “I did _not_ forget it, I _told_ you—“

Joey burst out laughing, head thrown slightly back. She gazed up at him, watching as his shoulders shook from the laughter.

“I do apologize for that, it was so unprofessional of me— you were saying?”

Zoe could feel the cockiness in his tone and was sure that he was smirking behind that mask.

She averted her eyes, “Oh, _fuck you_ , asshole.”

Yet, those words didn’t even have a trace of maliciousness or disgust. They were almost said…fondly.

She bristled at the thought, sickened with herself. How could she do that to the others? Here she was, chatting and making small talk with one of the killers like he was one of her buddies. Normally, she couldn’t even stand the thought of portraying the killers like living creatures with feelings, because they weren’t. But for some reason, when she interacted with the members of the Legion, it was entirely different.

Was it because they were the closest to human beings? It made sense, as they were the only ones out of all the other killers that still had some humanity left. Or maybe this place had fucked her morals so much that she didn’t know what was right and wrong anymore.

She gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. She could catch him off guard and attempt at an escape right now if her fist were to meet his neck. It would surely give her enough time to escape successfully, but she was standing against an experienced killer, she didn’t know if her pathetic punch would do much.

It was better than nothing, though.

Without any second thoughts, she raised her fist and aimed it for his neck. She only had a short-lived moment of joy, as he wasn’t moving to stop it, but before she knew it, her fist was caught and she was pulled forward into his warm chest.

He let out a low chuckle, his hands holding her arms behind her own back. It almost seemed like they were embracing, but she quickly discarded that thought, not wanting to wander off to dangerous places.

“That was a cute attempt, I’ll give you that.”

She let out a heavy sigh and stopped struggling altogether, shoulders hunching forward.

“What is it that you really want? This little ‘civilized conversation’ isn’t getting us anywhere, so what’s your real objective here? You want to torture me? Kill me? Well, if you do, just be done with it already, don’t keep me in suspense.”

After a few minutes of silence, to her shock, Joey released one of her hand and brought his hand up, cupping gently her cheek.

“I just didn’t want for our first encounter to be when you are…anyways, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” he apologized, voice coming off almost as sincere if she didn’t know better.

She scoffed and slapped his hand away, “What? Sorry for killing you and your friends? Sorry for making your life a living hell? You have to do better than that, buddy.”

Joey shook his head and lightly pushed her away.

“Go.”

She scowled, considering him for a moment and then with no further reply, she turned around and started jogging away, not looking behind her once.


	6. Chapter Six - Taken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where things get juicy, my dudes. Enjoy.

Zoe walked through the snowed path of Ormond for what seemed was the millionth time. She was seriously growing tired of waking up to this place because it also meant that she was going to be facing one of the Legion members yet again.

She had no clue why the four killers were so interested in her, but she wasn’t going to ponder on it much as she simply couldn’t care less. The four of them were ruthless murderers and they would remain as such.

Although, the one thing that she enjoyed in this godforsaken place was the snow. From when she was still young, snow always fascinated her in an unexplainable way. And until now, at eighteen years old, it still seemed magical to her. It was the only thing that brought some form of joy to her, and the child inside of her was itching to build a snowman or a snow fortress, yet she knew that she could never set free that innocent side of hers.

She softly cursed as she stepped on a broken piece of wood and broke it. She gripped her baseball bat tight and glanced around. She crouched low as her heartbeat started pounding fast against her ribcage and hid behind the closest tree.

She inhaled sharply as she heard light footsteps from behind her and briefly squeezed her eyes shut. They still had three generators remaining, so she had to somehow buy the others time, but could she do it, though? Let herself be the bait and be sacrificed –again— for the others?

While it was true that at this point, she didn’t much fear being killed, it wasn’t a pleasant experience either. She wasn’t helpless like the others, she had the means to protect herself, if only by a slightly bigger chance, but for how long could she keep doing this? For how long till she couldn’t take anymore?

She took a deep, calming breath and as she was about to stand up, she heard a high-pitched scream.

_Claudette!_

Without thinking it any further, she shot up to her legs and turned to the side, eyes searching around. Finally, she managed to spot Claudette limping into the abandoned lodge with the killer hot on her tails.

And it was Frank, oh _joy._

She sprinted towards the lodge, but by the time she arrived, it was too late. Frank had caught Claudette and had placed her on the hook downstairs. She gritted her teeth as she heard the characteristic sound of the Entity taking Claudette’s body.

_Useless_ , a small voice in the back of her head screamed at her and she snapped, swinging her bat against a couple of wooden boxes next to her, breaking them. Her heartbeat started pounding loud against her ribcage and turned towards the light footsteps she had heard creeping up behind her.

A wide grin formed on her lips, anger boiling deep inside her chest as she faced Frank’s grinning mask.

“Seriously, I get that you don’t have any friends and seek vengeance, but take your edgy teenager phase elsewhere alright?” she slowly brought her baseball bat up and to the side, as if ready to swing.

Frank tilted his head to the side and started slowly advancing on her.

“From the way I see it, you’re gonna be left out of friends too, soon. And you’re a teenager too, probably younger than me, so what’s your point, princess?”

She fought back a groan as she could practically _feel_ the smirk under that mask. Was he really proud of that comeback?

She sighed and started backing away, “Ah, I see, so you’re of those types, huh.”

“What types?”

“The assholes with a mentality of a five-year-old. Such a rare species, I thought it had gone extinct! Shame, really, ‘cause the world can do _so_ much better without your pitiful presence.”

A satisfied smirk stretched on her lips as Frank’s steps slightly fluttered.

“Oh, now you’re just asking for it aren’t you? As soon as I’m done butchering your pathetic fucking _friends_ , I’m going to come for you,” Frank stated and turned around, ready to leave.

“You kiss your mother with that mouth?!” she called after him, but he had already left.

_So much for being a distraction._

She shook her head and jogged to the generator next to the fireplace and started working on it, hoping that her other two teammates, Ace and Meg, had already done a few generators.

Soon enough, when she was in the middle of getting this generator done, she heard quiet moans of pain coming from behind her.

“I don’t mean to take away from your precious time, but a little caring could do me well.”

She scoffed and turned around, studying Ace with a bemused expression.

“You just had to fucking provoke him, didn’t you?”

Ace gasped and mockingly placed a hand over his battered chest, “Me? Provoke the killer? What do you think I am, a lunatic?”

Zoe lifted an eyebrow and Ace shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, okay, I might have called him names that hurt his dignity.”

She crossed her arms against her chest and tapped her foot to the ground, remaining silent.

“Okay- _fine_ , I may have also hit him with a dozen of pallets and blinded him many times with my trustworthy flashlight, but that’s about it!”

She chuckled, a small grin forming on her lips, “You’re unbelievable you know that? Originally, I was gonna say ‘this attitude will get you killed!’ but, you know, we kinda are already getting killed, so…yeah. Anyways, come here, let me patch you up.”

She grabbed the med kit box from the chest next to the stairs and stopped in front of Ace. She opened the box and unrolled a pack of bandages whilst inspecting his injury. Then, as she started rolling the bandage around his middle, Ace hummed approvingly.

“You’re actually really good at his— what do you say, care to become my personal nurse? I will pay you in—“

She snorted and briefly glanced up at him, “What? You’ll pay me with the money that you don’t even have or am not gonna even fucking need?”

“You underestimate me, I’m going to pay you with the best currency there is.”

“And that is…?”

“Pleasure, of course,” he winked and puckered his lips.

She burst out laughing, pausing as she cradled her stomach with her hands, “Oh, oh my god, it’s been so long since someone has made me laugh this much,” she wiped the tear that slipped from her eye and patted Ace on the shoulder, “bless your soul, Ace, god knows I needed that.”

Ace crossed his arms over his chest, pouting, “Nobody takes me seriously,” he murmured under his breath.

She huffed as she stared at Ace, thinking how much their friendship had formed. They started on relatively bad terms, as Ace, the flirt he is, didn’t really help. She might have misunderstood him, but at that moment, she really couldn’t deal with anyone’s bullshit, really. But as time passed, as more attempts were made, they became quite close.

Exchanging life stories, pulling pranks and telling jokes, playing cards together. Out of the rest of their other teammates, she and Ace were the ones that always cracked jokes no matter what. Although their dark sense of humor occasionally passed the line of sane, maybe that’s why they fit so well.

He had become one of her closest friends.

She patted his chest, which caused him to wince in pain and stood up.

“Okay, now that I have patched you up, let’s go get—“

Ace let out a gurgled sound and she snapped her head back to him, eyes widening in horror as she looked at the knife that was plunged inside Ace’s neck and was sticking out to the front. The knife disappeared from Ace’s neck and a massive amount of blood hit her face because of the cut artery. She stared in horror, frozen as Ace dropped down in front of her feet, lifeless eyes staring up at her.

“What a mess he made— I’m so sorry that you had to be drenched in _his_ blood, princess, but he pissed me off. And he was standing too close to you.”

Her eyes slowly traveled up, gaping at the bloodied, grinning mask. She wanted to scream, to curse, to run, to do anything, but her body was rooted to the spot, unable to move or talk.

“Was that too much for you? Jesus, I didn’t mean to make you mute— here, let me wipe this off your—“

Frank took a step forward and lifted his hand towards her face, but she snapped out of it and slapped his hand away, her breath coming out in ragged pants.

“Don’t…don't you fucking touch me with that hand you _monster_.” She bit out, glaring at him with fire in her eyes.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?! What have I done to deserve this treatment from you? Can’t you just act like everybody else?” she screamed at his face, chest heaving as she panted, face red from anger.

Frank remained silent, observing her with those dark brown eyes of his from behind the mask. Suddenly, he moved lightning-fast and placed his left hand behind her neck, fingers curling over the base and pulled her in.

“We have tried, but we can’t let you go, princess. Because I knew— _we_ knew from the very first moment that we laid eyes on you that you had to be ours.” He whispered into her ear which caused her to shudder as his breath tickled her neck.

She glanced down at the bloodied knife that Frank clutched in his right hand, afraid that she might have the same fate as Ace if she attempted anything right now.

_Oh, who gives a shit, I’m not going to sit here and listen to this lunatic. ‘Had to be ours’? Is this guy for real?_

She licked her dry lips and glanced back up, “Okay, let’s calm down here, I just— I just have a question for you, Frankie boy, real simple, I don’t mean to cause no problem.”

“Anything for you, _princess_.”

She gritted her teeth, trying to avoid showing the disgust in her face as she could practically _feel_ the cockiness in his tone.

A wide smirk formed on her lips and stuck out her chin, “Were you fucking dropped as a child?”

Immediately, she kicked him as hard as she could between his legs and she whooped in triumph as he let out a pained groan and curled into himself.

“Y-You…oh, you better pray for your salvation, b-because you are in _so_ much trouble,” Frank hissed, voice strained in pain.

She let out a loud laugh and turned around, already sprinting away, but not before she shouted over her shoulder, “You should be thanking me, I just took the liberty of making your microscopic dick officially out of use! You’re fucking welcome, bitch!”

A satisfied grin stretched on her mouth as she could hear Frank scream at her, but she was too far away to make out what he was trying to say. Not that she cared.

Her objective now was to find Meg, do the last generator and get the fuck out of this place. And that’s why she quietly moved from generator to generator, looking for Meg and she had taken a whole lap of the place and didn’t encounter her anywhere.

_Maybe she could be hiding? But why would she do that, especially when we only have one generator left? Meg isn’t like that._

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a massive pool of bloodstain leading behind one of a huge tree. She stepped closer and as she came around the other side of the tree, she stumbled back in surprise, mouth agape.

There was Meg, her lifeless body twisted at an odd and awkward angle, her whole front gutted, opened like a body in an autopsy, her intestines pouring out. Then the awful smell of rotten flesh hit her and she gagged, as the awful smell invaded her nostrils before she could manage to cover her mouth and nose.

She turned away from Meg’s lifeless body, whispered out a choked ‘sorry’ under her breath as she left the scene and started searching for the hatch.

Zoe took a deep, shaky breath and allowed herself a minute of composure. She was fucking terrified, but it wasn’t anything new, she could do this.

Easier said than done.

“Holy shit, there _is_ a god after all.”

It was like a weight was lifted from her chest and she was able to breathe normally again as she gazed at the open hatch that was just up ahead. She glanced around, but when she didn’t see Frank anywhere near, she made a run for it.

She was almost there, she would actually make it! A smile formed on her lips as she got ready to jump into it, but everything came crashing down as a hand grabbed her from behind and drew her against a chest, strong hands wrapping around her middle, caging her in.

“No! No, no, no, let me go! Let me go, you fuck—“

Her voice hitched in her throat as something cold was placed against her forearm, slowly traveling up her arm and as she looked down, she realized it was a fucking _knife_ , holy fucking shit—

Fingers gripped her chin and forced her chin to the left, staring up at that goddamn grinning mask. Then, those fingers trailed up her cheek, caressing it gently.

“Why?” she breathed against his mask, shoulders shagging, feeling all the exhaustion in her bones and was practically held up by Frank’s body.

“I told you that we can’t let you go and we have been good— _I_ have been good, so good, making sure to sacrifice to the Entity as many as possible, pleasing it in order to get you. And we did it,” Frank briefly brushed his fingers over her eyebrow, “we finally did it.”

Her eyes widened in alarm and started struggling against his strong grip.

“W-What, what do you mean get me? What are you going to—“

Sharp pain exploded in the back of her head and black spots appeared in her vision, head throbbing and dizzy as she fell limply against his arms.

“You will finally get to be with us where you belong. Your new home.”

* * *

When Ace regained consciousness in the campfire, he let out a deep breath and remained on the ground for a while. He winced as he remembered the way that knife was plunged into his neck, the excruciating pain, the short-lived agony.

The horror on Zoe’s face.

He jerked into a sitting position at the thought and glanced around, searching for her. She should be back any minute now, so he decided to go and sit by the campfire, next to Dwight.

Ace waited and waited, not knowing how many minutes or hours passed before he was plunged into unconsciousness again.

Zoe never showed up.


	7. Chapter Seven - Awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for taking such a long time to update, I was really hoping now that it's summer to write more, but of course, writer's block had to be a bitch...I'll try to force myself to write, but I don't know what the result will be. Anyways, hope you enjoy this one.

Zoe woke up slowly, groaning as she clutched her head from the throbbing pain. As soon as she became fully aware of her surroundings, the first thing she noticed was that the surface under her was oddly soft.

She rubbed her eyes and glanced down, mouth dropping open as she gently caressed with her hand the mattress of a _bed_ , holy fucking shit.

Had she really died and went to heaven? Because this seemed too good to be true.

Forcing her eyes away from the bed underneath her, she studied her surroundings, or rather, the unfamiliar room she seemed to be in. It was a simple room, with a brown nightstand at her right, against the wall right from her was placed a wooden wardrobe and next to it was a desk, quite aged-looking.

“Heaven can surely do better than this,” she pursed her lips, a grim expression forming on her face.

No, this wasn’t heaven, no matter how much she craved it. Unfortunately, she was still very much alive and she wasn’t in the campfire, which unnerved her. She had no idea where she could be, but she wasn’t as stupid as she let herself seem, she knew that dear _Frank_ was somehow behind this, considering how their last meeting had gone.

She gritted her teeth, “When I get my hands on him…”

Pushing herself off the bed, she slowly made her way across to the wooden door and placed her ear flat against it. After a few minutes of eavesdropping in and not hearing anything, she took a deep breath and with shaky hands, she grabbed the handle and opened the door as quietly as possible.

She winced as the door slightly creaked in protest and cursed at it under her breath. Frantically, she glanced left and right at the long hallway, but thankfully the sound didn’t alert anyone, if there even _was_ anyone in here, and let out a sigh of relief.

Then, without giving it much thought, she randomly picked the left and started moving along the wall, posture slightly hunched, taking cautious steps.

On her way down the hallway, she passed a couple of doors, but she didn’t stop to check any of those rooms. Her main objective was a way out, and that was either a window or the front door.

She perked up as she noticed at the end of the hallway a staircase that went down. She clenched her trembling hands into tight fists and forced herself to take the first step down. It was all about making that small start, taking the first step. Then, the next would follow.

She wasn’t ignorant, she knew that the terror withholding a tight grip around her heart was growing by the minute, but she didn’t allow it to stop her.

Anyways, what could really be worse than what she had been experiencing all this time?

When she arrived down, she inhaled sharply as she glanced around the new place she found herself into. It was a quite large hall, several doors at either side of walls, but what caught her eye was the large, wooden door that stood tall across from her.

She sprinted towards it, a relieved smile forming on her lips as her hands wrapped around the handle, but it slowly faded away from her mouth as she pulled and pushed at the door futility, never giving an inch.

“Oh, come on, open up you little shit! I don’t have time for this!” she cursed, still going at it, but the door didn’t even budge from its place.

At one point she stopped, exhausted as she was panting. Frustrated, she kicked it hard which she immediately regretted, as pain flared up in her foot and crouched down, cradling it.

“Nope, definitely not dumb, of course I planned for this— _fuck_ ,” she grunted as the pain didn’t subdue, her foot still throbbing.

“That looks like it’s hurting like a bitch— do you need me to kiss it in order to make the pain go away?”

She let out a startled scream and scrambled back, away from the voice. She looked alarmed at the person that’s crouched, staring at her in the place Zoe was not too long ago.

Zoe searched the girl’s face and recognition flashed in her eyes as she caught sight of the long, pink hair.

_Susie._

“S-Stay back, I’m warning you, y-you, uh, you don’t want to mess with me,” she frantically glanced around, searching for anything that could be used as a weapon, but found none.

Zoe brought her arms in front of her from her crouched position, hands curling into fists, heartbeat pounding loud against her ears as Susie titled her head to the side, a wide grin splitting her face in two, braces on teeth visible.

Zoe shuddered as something wicked flashed in Susie’s eyes and struggled to stand up.

“Oh, come on now, pretty, don’t be like that, I just wanted to talk!” Susie lifted her arms and wiggled her fingers, “see? I don’t have anything on me, you don’t have to be afraid of—“

As Susie took a step forward, she took a few steps backwards, but as she stepped on her injured foot, a new wave of throbbing pain shot up her leg. A pained whimper escaped her lips and she leaned against the wall next to her.

“You seriously expect me to be cool with that? ‘Oh, yeah, Susie said that she is harmless, so I should definitely believe that! It’s not like she’s a ruthless killer that murdered all my friends continuously!’”

Zoe panted heavily, body shaking. A small sigh escaped her lips as Susie finally stopped advancing on her and instead turned her attention elsewhere.

Her eyes widened as Susie puckered her lips, pouting and staring at the ground.

“Are you…are you seriously pouting right now?”

“But you’re hurt and you won’t let me even come close to you!” Susie remarked and kicked the floor childishly.

She blinked, left speechless at Susie’s antics.

_Is that really the same person I met in the trial?_

“Susie, I don’t know if you've noticed, but I think you’re scaring her. How about you go bring some ice so we can put it on her foot?”

Zoe turned towards the familiar voice, a soft gasp escaping her lips.

“But why do I have to go? It’s not fair! I wanna talk to her too!” Susie protested as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Joey chuckled as he stepped closer, his handsome smile visible now as he wasn’t wearing the mask.

_Wait, did I just think he was handsome? What the shit—_

“You’ll get the chance to talk to her,” Joey leaned closer to Susie, whispered something into her ear and then gave her a quick peck to the lips, “now go, we do not want her bruise to get worse.”

Susie saluted, “Sir, yes, sir!” and with that, disappeared off to one of the doors.

Zoe remained there, gawking at everything that has happened.

“You look surprised, cat got your tongue?”

She finally snapped out of her trance and glared at Joey.

“Oh, excuse me for being such a terrible guest, but apparently I wasn’t informed that I was going to get kidnapped!” she shouted, waving her left arm around widely, “where the fuck am I? And why the fuck did you take me, huh?”

Joey let out a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Look, I know you’re angry and you have every right to be, but can we please do this elsewhere so we can attend to your injury—“

She scoffed, grinning cruelly at him, “What, now you suddenly care about my wellbeing? Suddenly you’re a saint? Fuck off, _Joey_ , I’m not buying any of your fake bullshit.”

“Zoe, please, just—“

“I brought the ice pack!”

She snapped her head slightly to left, narrowing her eyes as she watched Susie jog up to them with a pack of ice covered with a towel.

She placed her arms in front of her, keeping her distance from the two of them.

“You are not going to come anywhere near me— neither of you or else I will beat you up.”

Joey folded his arms over his chest, staring at her with a bemused expression, “And how exactly are you going to do that? You don’t have your baseball bat with you.”

She softly cursed, “With, uh, with my powerful…strength?”

“Okay, I’ve had enough of this,” Joey snapped and turned to Susie, “if you could, please?”

Susie handed the ice pack over to Joey with slight hesitation, and immediately he started advancing in on her.

She tried to get back, but every time she added weight onto her foot, she stumbled from the pain. She let out a panicked shout when Joey reached her and she raised her fist, ready to swing, but it was easily caught and the next thing she knew, something cold was pressed against her foot.

Slowly, she blinked her eyes open, not having realized that she had squeezed them shut and looked down. Joey was crouched down in front of her, pressing the ice pack on her injured foot, which she now realized was bare, without any shoes.

Huh.

Zoe let out a small sigh, leaning against the wall behind her as she let herself relax into the soothing feeling.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.

She froze at that thought, stomach twisting in knots. Did that thought really cross her mind? How could anyone feel okay in the slightest in the presence of two killers? It made her feel sick and disgusted with herself. Maybe this place had fucked her up so much that she had gone completely insane, that was the only logical explanation.

“Okay, you’re going to come to the kitchen with me to patch it up, we can’t keep standing here forever,” Joey narrowed his eyes at her as she opened her mouth to protest, “and I will get you into the kitchen no matter what it takes. You can either go there yourself or I either of us can carry you— it’s your choice.”

After a few seconds of thought, she pushed herself off the wall and limped across the other wall towards the door she had seen Susie ran off too previously all while grumbling under her breath.

Susie jogged past her and opened the door for her, giving her a charming smile full of teeth. She turned her head away from it, feeling her chest tighten, heart hammering against her ribcage.

It was quite a spacey room, the kitchen counter expanding along the whole wall across from her and slightly to the right and in the center was a big, wooden table shaped in a circle.

Susie pulled up a chair from the table, her face still bright with that same smile. As she awkwardly sat down, she tracked with her eyes Joey’s movements, who was crouched over an opened cabinet.

“Are you always this feisty?”

She turned her eyes back to Susie, who was standing too close to her liking. She thickly swallowed when her eyes met Susie’s, forcing herself from cowering away from those intense blue eyes.

Lost in her emotions, she had completely forgotten the fact that these were killers she was talking to and wondered, with a small wince, how she had managed to survive this long considering her attitude towards them.

Why hadn’t they killed her yet? Had they taken her to torture her or something? To play a sick and twisted game because they were bored?

But as she glanced at Joey who walked over to her and crouched down in front of her, starting to unroll the pack of bandages, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

Why would they patch her up if they wanted to torture her? Why help her at all? And treat her so kindly after lashing out like that?

A bigger play was behind this, a different motive and she just couldn’t see it. Yeah, that was it— maybe they were expecting something out of her, maybe a secret to pass to the other side, as Joey knew that she could.

There was no other logical explanation for them treating her like this, like they had feelings, like they were human beings.

“When I’m surrounded by the killers that kidnapped me? I think I’m kinda obliged to,” she addressed Susie without sparing her a glance, her gaze glued to the kitchen counter across from her.

“Why though? I mean, I kinda get the fact that you’ll feel kinda hostile at first, but we haven’t done anything to hurt you and we don’t really plan to, pretty,” Susie was now sitting in the chair next to her, rocking back and forth and nodded down at Joey, “isn’t that right?”

She pressed her lips into a thin line as she briefly glanced down at Joey, who seemed to be almost done bandaging her up.

_They are monsters, ruthless killers, they don’t have emotions and want to hurt you. Don’t let them fool you._

Zoe bit the inner of her cheek, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of stirring her up.

“Done. It’s actually not that bad, so it should heal fully in a couple of days if you don’t tire it much,” Joey stated as he got up and placed the rest of the remaining bandage roll into the cabinet.

_Don’t say thanks, don’t say it, don’t you fucking say it._

“Why?” she whispered, eyes glued at her bandaged foot.

“Why what? Why we bandaged you up?” Susie snorted, twirling a pink lock with her finger, “pretty, this is a _pretty_ dumb question— hah, get it? Cause I call her—“

“Why did you bring me here.” she cut Susie off, tone demanding.

It wasn’t like she was planning on staying too long, so it wouldn’t really matter soon, but she just had to know or else she wouldn’t be able to rest. She knew that she could pass over to the other side with ease, so escaping shouldn’t be a problem.

She jumped as a loud sound was heard and she snapped her head towards Joey, who was standing in front of the kitchen counter, his palm flat against the closed cabinet.

“We didn’t, not really. Originally, it was Frank’s idea,” he responded and turned around, walking towards her.

Zoe tightened her grip on the arm of the chair, body tensing up as Susie and Joey were now _way_ too close to her liking.

_Of course it was that asshole’s idea._

But she needed time to think, to plan and come up with a detailed plan for her escape, and in order to do that she must be alone. And she also wasn’t in the mood to see Julie or Frank, those two were even worse than Susie and Joey.

She thickly swallowed and played with the hem of her grey hoodie, “Can I, uh, can I go get some rest? I don’t really remember where the room I woke up was and this,” she gestured to her injured foot, “you know, has kinda worn me off…”

As she glanced up, Joey held her gaze, trying very hard not to flinch away from those piercing honey-colored eyes.

“Alright, you can go— Susie, can you please make sure that she doesn’t add much weight to her foot?”

Susie perked up, hopping off the chair, “Oh, you know me, handsome, I can never say no to you!”

Joey’s lips twitched into an amused smile as he leaned towards Susie and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.

Zoe discreetly averted her eyes from the _affectionate_ display. No, killers couldn’t have any healthy and romantic feelings towards another, it was impossible…

Right?

“C’mon, pretty, let’s get you back to your room!”

Her eyes widened in alarmed as a hand closed around her wrist, pulling her up and off the chair. She tried to struggle away from Susie’s grip, but realized her mistake and cursed inwardly.

_So much for trying to play exhausted._

“S-Sorry, just…instincts.”

“Don’t worry your pretty head over it, I didn’t even feel that, to be honest!”

Zoe remained silent as Susie led her away from the kitchen and into the huge hall again, following the same path all the way up to the room where she previously was. This time, though, she made sure to pay close attention to her surroundings, memorizing whatever she could see, making a mental map of the house she was in.

Well, the word ‘house’ was incredibly modest, because really, this seemed more like a small mansion with so many rooms and such huge ceiling with two floors.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any window in sight expect from the kitchen, and she figured that she wouldn’t find any luck with the main door, so she had to work with what she currently had.

“And we have arrived!” Susie withdrew her hand and opened the door for her.

She limped in and gave the room a quick once-over again before she turned to face Susie.

“If you need anything, just come to the backyard, that’s where we usually are.”

Zoe blinked and raised an eyebrow, “Uh, I don’t…I don’t know where the backyard is?”

“Ooh, right, I forgot—“ Susie rubbed her chin in thought for a few seconds, eyes squinting in concentration.

She shook her head, “It’s okay, I won’t need anything— either way, I’m probably going to nap for a while, so…”

“Of course, I’ll let you rest now,” Susie grabbed the handle of the door and winked at her, “talk to you soon, pretty.”

And with that, the door closed and she was finally left alone.

Zoe stumbled back a few steps and let herself fall behind on the bed, arms wide at either side, staring at the ceiling. Letting out a deep breath, she ran a hand over her face and briefly closed her eyes.

_What sins have I committed in my past life to deserve this?_

Then, after composing herself from the shock and acknowledged the fact that her situation was, indeed, real and not some kind of fucked up nightmare, started planning.


End file.
